Top 100 Summer Comics… #85

Whew. This one came in close to the wire. We ain’t going out like that.

It’s 11:50 pm (central time for those curious of my living situation) and I just completed a long drive to Dallas, TX.

What better way to celebrate such an All-American City than by featuring a classic Captain America caper?

#86 – Captain America 357

Baron Zemo was my favorite villain. At some point, I’ll get into my issues with his unlikely hero turn(?) in Thunderbolts, but this is just exactly why it didn’t work. He was a bad guy’s bad guy. He was just evil. Marvel has never had a whole lot of BAD for the sake of BAD types. Zemo was one of them. This issue was wrapping up a weird Cap as a teen story that I am convinced was just testing the waters for an X-Babies like Teen Cap miniseries, but geniusly setting up a truly great hunt for powerful stones. THIS WORKS PEOPLE. I am somehow compelled like many others by this mystical search for precious gems. No clue why. But be it Indiana Jones or Flintheart Glomgold or Thanos, I want to see/read/etc about evil vs. good in a dire search for power…ful stones. Loved this arc… and the last time Diamondback was actually written well / cool.